Navicure ICD-10 Survey Shows Mixed Results And Worries Over Payers

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

As the industry continues to ready itself for the implementation of ICD-10, more surveys are being conducted to gauge the attitudes and readiness of healthcare entities around the country.

The most recent of these was conducted by Navicure, and is the third in a series focused on physician practices. The majority of respondents were practice administrators or billing managers (57 percent) with a few billers and coders included (14 percent). The remainder was practice executives. Multiple specialties and practice sizes were represented.

The survey resulted in five, key findings, summarized in the report available here.

The Delay Has Impacted Everyone Differently

As expected, the delays in implementation have impacted respondents in both positive and negative ways. The majority of respondents (58 percent) had already started preparations, but halted them when the delay was announced. A full 23 percent continued preparations despite the implementation being put off.

Somewhat surprisingly, the majority of those surveyed reported that the delay had no impact at all (55 percent), with 20 percent claiming it had a positive impact, and 13 percent citing a negative impact.

ICD-10 Preparedness Is All Over The Board

You may have noticed that you don’t see any solid patterns in preparedness across your clients. If so, this survey supports those findings. A significant number of respondents paused implementation after the delay (30 percent), and only 21 percent feel as if they’re actually on track. There are some laggards though, with 15 percent not having started preparations at all.

The non-preparers do have their reasons though, and many of those go back to solutions providers — 25 percent are waiting on their EMR or practice management vendor on updates. Another 23 percent say they are short on time, staff, or resources, and 30 percent are banking on another delay or only needing a few months before the deadline to get things together.

Most Believe It Will Happen In 2015

A strong majority of respondents believe that ICD-10 won’t be postponed again — 67 percent believe that the October 1 deadline for this year will stand firm, while only 33 percent believe that we can expect to see another delay.

Concerns Are Focused On Money

While concerns around the delay ranged from training, to technology, the overwhelming majority (59 percent) are most concerned about the implementation of the new coding system’s impact on cash flow and/or revenue.

Contradictorily, there appears to be very little planning around finances, with 29 percent having budgeted nothing in preparation for the transition, and 41 percent being unaware of what preparations have been made. The majority of those that did prepare (18 percent) have budged less than $50,000.

Everyone Is Worried About Payers

Payer readiness is on everyone’s mind, with 41 percent now focusing on this stakeholder in particular. That’s up from 30 percent in the spring of 2013.

While practices might be concerned about payers, they’re preparing themselves, with 49 percent participating in end-to-end testing, or planning to do so in the future. Unfortunately, that’s down 7 percent from the fall of 2013.

The report also includes key action items focused around budgeting, getting started, and testing to get ready for the impending ICD-10 deadline.